Ledger, Legacy Trust to Offer Institutional Custody of ERC-20 Tokens

Cryptocurrency hardware wallets maker Ledger and Hong Kong-licensed trust and custody company Legacy Trust have partnered to provide “institutional-grade” cryptocurrency custody.

Revealing the news exclusively to CoinDesk on Thursday, the two firms said the solution is aimed to increase the movement of institutional money into digital assets.

By utilizing Ledger’s multi-signature cryptocurrency wallet management product Ledger Vault, Legacy Trust said it can now “securely and efficiently” custody clients’ digital assets, such as bitcoin, and perhaps most notably, will also start offering custody of ethereum-based ERC-20 tokens.

Legacy Trust group CEO and founder Vincent Chok told CoinDesk:

“There is huge interest in ERC-20 custody services and it’s only growing bigger. Every STO [security token offering] that is planning to take place will need to have custody for ERC-20 tokens.”

“Since the beginning of 2019, we’ve basically received around five requests for ERC20 custody, per week,” he added.

According to Ledger Vault’s global head, Demetrios Skalkotos, the partnership will ensure investors have “total control and peace of mind that their assets are secure, while not sacrificing convenience.”

Ledger first revealed the development of Ledger Vault solution in January 2018, saying at the time that the product would be aimed at institutional investors such as banks and hedge funds.

With institutional investors increasingly eyeing the cryptocurrency sector, a number of traditional financial firms have been venturing into custody services lately to meet the growing demand for more secure storage.

Earlier this month, online banking and trading group Swissquote said it is launching a “nuke-proof” cryptocurrency custody service. In October, U.K.-based security services company G4S started offering a crypto custody service aimed to protect investors’ holdings of digital assets.

Vault image via Shutterstock